Workpiece handling devices have been known for centuries. Numerous types of spinners, holders or carriers have been developed depending upon the size, shape and weight of the item or items to be spun, held or carried. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,471,103, a device for holding watch movements of various sizes and shapes is disclosed. The device comprises a first pair of stationary pins extending upwardly from a permanent base. A second pair of pins connect to a block beneath the base and move simultaneously with a slidable push rod having an actuating knob located at the forward end of the base. Watch movements are held between the four pins during inspection and repair. The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,471,103 does not provide any support beneath the main body of the watch movement or workpiece, however. Nor does the patent teach rotation or variable height adjustment of the device or workpiece held therebetween.
A straight beam adjustable jaw clamp taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,949,947 includes a pair of parallel spaced bars upon which a plurality of workpieces are supported. The clamp includes a first fixed jaw and second jaw adjustable relative to the spaced bars. Each of said jaws has a workpiece-engaging face covered by resilient facing material such as rubber or felt. Since the clamp disclosed requires only one hand for operation, the other hand of the clamp operator is freed. However, the clamp disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,949,947 is not separately rotatable or height adjustable. The patented clamp also teaches jaw adjustment and handle-biasing means which are substantially different from the device herein.
In laboratory environments, there is also a need for workpiece handling devices which promote worker efficiency and safety. For example, when laboratory containers must be held in either extreme temperature conditions or for extended periods of time with little or no movement, container holders are irreplaceable. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,693,015 and 2,914,831 teach laboratory container holders which adjust to variable heights. With these holders, test tubes and flasks are handled during heating, mixing or other activities. Specifically, both patents disclose a band which wraps around the neck of the container to be held. Remaining slack in the band is taken up within a bar and tensioned by a nut or other securing means. Neither patent teaches means for easily removing the laboratory container from the holder nor for supporting the container from beneath.
In the pharmaceutical setting, handlers of chemotherapy drugs must take special precautions to insure their safety as well as those of the drug recipient. Chemotherapy drugs are the most potent and toxic drug class on a milligram per milligram basis currently available. Many of these drugs are teratogenic (producing birth defects); carcinogenic (known cancer producing agents in man); and/or genotoxic (may produce irreversible chromosomal damage). The patients to whom these drugs are administered receive them only after dilution or at a much slower rate through the vein so that blood flow further dilutes the concentration. Typically, the patients receiving chemotherapy drugs are immunosuppressed through the use of other drugs. Therefore, pharmacists and other drug handlers must be especially careful to insure that patients receive sterile drug dosages free of bacteria and other foreign matter.
Because of the need to protect both the recipient and the chemotherapy drug handler, the pharmaceutical laboratory work area includes a biological safety cabinet or hood having a downward vertical air flow therebeneath. An absorbent pad is placed directly beneath the air flow and over the area where the drug handler prepares precise patient dosages. Recently adopted OSHA guidelines further recommend that individual handlers of chemotherapy drugs wear hydrophobic gowns and surgical latex gloves. Most chemotherapy drugs are stored and transferred either in vials which operate under a negative pressure system or in glass ampoules having tap necks that must be broken. When extracting drugs from these containers, drug handlers should not disrupt the downward flow of air onto the work area or otherwise risk contamination of the patient dosages which they prepare. Hence, chemotherapy drug handlers should operate from beneath the containers or parallel to the work surface to insure dosage sterility but as far away from the containers as is physically possible to reduce their own risks to accidental exposure.
There are no known devices for handling chemotherapy drug containers at this time. Rather, present safety techniques require the handler to hold a vial or opened ampoule in one hand and insert a filter straw or needle into the container with the other hand. While under the downward air flow of the safety cabinet, the handler should then extract the needle plunger using only his/her thumb. This technique becomes tiresome and may result in handler deviations from recommended procedures. Even with the above precautions, chemotherapy drug handlers are nevertheless susceptible to exposure either through inhalation of an aerosol (or spray) of the drug or by direct skin contact with open containers, broken glass or needle tips.
For the chemotherapy drugs stored in vials, chemo pins were developed to equate the pressure from within the vial thereby reducing the possibility of handler exposure from drug aerosolization. These chemo pins are rather costly to maintain in constant supply, however.